As bright and
sweet-tempered a fellow as ever lived! I must look into it."
Uncle William usually had his own way about things, for the reason
that no other way was so pleasant. No one could resist his bright face
and cordial manner. He carried around with him an atmosphere of such
hearty goodwill that it was next to impossible to be cross or gloomy
in his presence. People sometimes wondered how he happened to marry
Mrs. Hazeltine, but the reason was plain enough to him. He regarded
her with the greatest admiration, feeling that a harum-scarum fellow
like himself was most fortunate in having such a wife to keep him
straight. He was very proud and fond of her, and quite blind to what
others called her managing propensities. Sometimes, indeed, he
wondered how she could be so severe in her judgment of the children,
but then someone must be firm. And though she was often annoyed by his
friendliness with all sorts of odd people, and wished William would
draw the line somewhere, she always ended by saying leniently that he
would never be anything but a boy.
He had a warm love for children. No matter how ragged and forlorn they
might be, they interested him. The newsboys and bootblacks felt that
he was their friend, and many were the treats they received at his
hand.
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